Chicago BAT Project

[art128 4,618]

It's looking wonderful. I like the roof junk so far. A bi-level BMU is on its way as I see.

[darn42 1,268]

Update. All textures are very preliminary.

I'm having trouble in two points on the roof junk. I can't find any good pictures of the antenna or the tracks where they switch to vertical. I'll end up just looking at generic references for antenna, but I spent a solid hour trying to figure out what I'm going to model for that part of the track and I have no idea. Anyone want to help me out?

[Ion_Cannon 677]

I've always loved this building, I think I actually have a version of this in my cities already, but I welcome that you're making a new version. Look great so far

[raynev1 1,886]

This is going to be awesome , great work .

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Look great. It it looks like the red rails on the roof a a bit elevated (because of their shadows). And I think this is a bit irritating.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

@ skyscraper: Careful with that word - it's a common "false friend" and doesn't mean the same as "irritierend" in German. In English, something that irritates you is something that makes you angry. I guess you meant something like "confusing".

[art128 4,618]

Fantastic!

I don't know if you are aware, but on Bing Maps you have 45° degrees bird view of most cities. Just took a look at Chicago and you can see the roof [ not ultra zoom-like, but still helpful I think.]

Also these sort of BMU bi levels or even tri-quadri levels are present a lot in Japan, I'll try to search for some exemples.

[Darknono35 3,137]

WOW, it's going to be a great building! Very nice congratulations and look forward to see more;)

[darn42 1,268]

Art: Thank you very much, I would very much appreciate that. As for google/bing maps, I've been using both of them a lot to model the roof, but I can't see close enough to get it in detail.

Sky: The BMU references that I did find had their tracks off the ground by quite a bit and on stands. That's what I did.

[Vlasky 1,803]

I hope these will help:

[paulvmontfort 616]

I looked it up in bing and it's indeed a bit of an annoying angle at which the pictures are taken. It looks to me like the part that where the track goes vertical is a lifting platform. It runs along the vertical piece of track. i'd just model a red box underneath the track on this part to represent the platform

[art128 4,618]

Like Paul said, it's like a standard lift [ not sure how to sya that in english so " Monte Charge " in french. ]

[darn42 1,268]

Thank you so much arthur. I typed in the french word you described into google and I think I have what I need

[gutterclub 2,729]

I'm not sure if you've started the windows yet but they seem to be a bit darker and more opaque from that angle...i'm sure just lowering the transparancy will do the trick

[darn42 1,268]

Here is the update for today. I didn't get a chance to work on any modeling really. Just reworked the facade texture, the glass texture (which needs work, stronger bump mainly), and the roof texture.

No weathering has been applied to the facade yet. Gonna see how well decals work for the grime with something that is only a UV box

For the ground plane, this is something I have not had a lot of practice with. Does it need to be smaller?

[gutterclub 2,729]

With the Ground pane I normally set it to 200x200m, if it isn't giving the results I want i'll change the size of the UV map to say 150x150 or 100x100..i think maybe the noise on the glass needs to be bigger, I normally go for size 8 on one mat and size 8.5 on the other and alternate them between glass panes.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Are you going to do the sunken plaza?

[darn42 1,268]

Jason: yes. I will do that after I get the rest of the building done.

gutterclub: I have it set a bit low on the bump I think. The bump is a mix between a noise and dent map with another noise map as the mixer, but the noise is like size 10.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

@ skyscraper: Careful with that word - it's a common "false friend" and doesn't mean the same as "irritierend" in German. In English, something that irritates you is something that makes you angry. I guess you meant something like "confusing".

Wow, thanks for this little grammar lessons ^^

@darn: Glad to hear that the glass texture isn't finished yet. About the facade colour, I think you should think about brighten it a bit. The overall building looks to dark in my opinion. The only thing I wonder is where those vertical lines are comming from. In the picture Vlasky has posted above you can't really see any of them.

But still a great progress. Looking forward to the weathered version.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

The building looks great, keep it up!!!!

[darn42 1,268]

Sky: the vertical lines are the bricks. You can't see the horizontal ones because the sun is beaming down on those and making them brighter, but the vertical ones aren't getting as much sunlight. On google maps angled view you can see them much better, and it is the angle that simcity is closer to. In bing maps as well, you can only see the vertical lines of the bricks, except in the shadow where, it gains some clarity on the horizontal.

I do agree that it's a bit too pronounced though. I will brighten the brick grout so that it's less obvious.

As for the overall facade, I have already brightened it and added a slight yellow hue You will see it in the next update.

[JayStimson 211]

Coming along very nicely indeed.

[darn42 1,268]

Update for today.

I made the bump for the windows .05, not sure if that's too strong now. Also, I modeled the lift for the BMU, but I still have yet to do the antenna. Roof in general is still waiting for a lot. I'm gonna add some grime and such to the walls tomorrow Hopefully by next weekend it will be ready for the plaza.

[newyorka 26]

You should make some Chicago graystone and limestone rowhouses.

[Girafe 1,729]

The ground map is too blurred, the rest is going well for time

[anotn 223]

It's looking spectacular. I agree with girafe, and maybe there are some similarily coloured areas in the ground bitmap that are too big.

[darn42 1,268]

New update. Added some grime and changed the windows reflection. One problem that was pointed out to me was the road reflection at the bottom of the building, I think it looks good there, but it won't work if someone builds chase anywhere but a road... Anybody have any ideas on how to keep something like that down there and keep the reflection mostly strong, but still keep some ambiguity?

[gutterclub 2,729]

Definately onto a winner now with those windows, nailed it!

[Amthaak 1,501]

I agree with gutterclub! looks really more realistic! I like it very much!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

What I usually do is I put the maxis pavers and the maxis road in how you have it now, but then I fade the half of the road that's opposite of the building into the more generic ground texture. That way it's specific right infront of the building where you pretty much know what's going to be there, but once you get past that one lane it becomes more generic, so that you don't have to worry about whether it's a road or an avenue, or what buildings are across the street, etc.

And then sometimes if the yellow stripes are too prominent in the reflections I'll desaturate them.

I think the upper floors' glass looks pretty good, but for the ground floor it would probably be better to make the glass transparent and model an interior. Right now the lobby glass looks like mirrored glass and not transparent glass.